Laurel Broten to address labour dispute Thursday morning

Public school teachers in Ontario will learn today whether the Liberal government will impose contracts on them that will freeze their wages and put an end to one-day strikes.

Education minister Laurel Broten will speak Thursday morning about the ongoing labour dispute, in which teachers across the province held rotating strikes to protest Bill 115, legislation that gives Broten the authority to stop strikes.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have both said they will hold protests if contracts are imposed on their members.

Current Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty, in an open letter addressed to Ontario teachers, said the government plans to balance the province’s budget by 2017-18, but he did not specify whether he will impose contracts on teachers.

“Our preference is and has always been negotiated settlements. But after 10 months, the bargaining deadline has passed,” he wrote in the letter. “Ontarians expect, rightly, that uncertainty in education will not continue indefinitely.”